An ultrasonic wave is an acoustic wave having a frequency above the range of human audibility, and a sound wave having a frequency which is between about 20 kHz and 100 kHz.
Ultrasonic waves are used for inspecting inner parts of a human body or animal or for measuring, in a non-destructive manner, the thicknesses or inside combinations of solid matters such as a metal or a plastic. In these cases, ultrasonic waves are implemented in the form of a probe (hereinafter, referred to as “an ultrasonic probe”) for easy handling by users.
This ultrasonic probe includes a piezoelectric ceramic to interchangeably convert an electrical signal to an acoustic signal by vibration of a piezoelectric material, an acoustic matching layer configured to decrease an acoustic impedance difference between the piezoelectric ceramic and an object so that ultrasonic waves generated in the piezoelectric ceramic can be fully delivered to the object, and a lens layer to focus ultrasonic waves propagating in a forward direction of the piezoelectric ceramic at a certain position, and a rear-side block to exclude ultrasonic waves propagating in a rearward direction of a piezoelectric layer to prevent image distortion.
Ultrasonic probes formed as these configurations have been widely used in medical field. An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus using an ultrasonic probe applies ultrasonic waves to an organism, converts reflected ultrasonic waves to electrical signals, transmits the electrical signals to an image processing unit, and generates an image through the signals received by the image processing unit.
Through the above-described process, the ultrasonic probes have been advantageously used for detecting a foreign material in an organism, measuring the degree of injury, observing a tumor, and observing a fetus.
Since ultrasonic waves have various frequency areas, in ultrasonic diagnosis using ultrasonic probes, the range of diagnosis is limited based on the frequency areas.
Therefore, since an appropriate probe is used for a diagnosis desired by a user, there are inconveniences in that different probes should be used according to intended use.